Shar Coulson, installation view of “Night Sight: Illuminating the Mind’s Eye Through Darkness,” 2025, at International Museum of Surgical Science/Photo: Susan Aurinko

Artist Shar Coulson understands the healing power of art firsthand. When she was diagnosed with endocarditis in 2021 Coulson underwent emergency open-heart surgery that likely saved her life. During the first month and a half of her recovery, she created a single drawing each day on Canson paper based on what she describes as hallucinations that danced behind her closed eyelids while heavily sedated in the days immediately following the surgery. Coulson says, “What remained imprinted in my mind were pulsating shapes in vivid color that brought unexpected calm during a critical time.” These memories flowed from mind to paper in the months that followed, resulting in “Night Sight,” her title for the series. Coulson feels as though creating art hastened her recovery, and what came from that otherworldly experience is the work now on view at the International Museum of Surgical Science.

Walking into the gallery, which is painted black, evokes a visual similar to what Coulson saw with her closed eyes. The twenty-two small drawings, also mounted and framed in black, are individually lit, giving each a jewel-like quality that engages the viewer and encourages studying one piece at a time. The drawings themselves are exquisitely delicate, their white pencil lines almost thread-like, with patches of color that seem to spontaneously appear or to bleed through the paper. Coulson, who is known for her organic forms that lean toward the botanical and vibrant, unnamable colors, is used to painting large—these drawings, in waxed and chalk-pastel pencils and acrylic paint are almost miniature in comparison, but no less lovely. The subtlety of this work initiates a new genre for her, a way of making work perfectly suited to both the materials and space at hand while she was recovering in bed.

Going back to the black walls, black paper, mats and frames, think for a moment what it would be like to “see” through your eyelids, or to see images with the inside of your eyelids as a screen on which they are projected via the lights beyond them. While Coulson recovered, her eyes closed, one wonders if the lights of the ICU filtered through her lids, creating the cobweb-like elements and the spreading color, if the medication was partly responsible for the hallucinations, or a combination of the two. Coulson credits creating this art, as well as excellent medical care, with her full recovery. In an adjacent gallery, the museum has curated an assortment of items from their collection of coronary objects and models, as well as video and didactic materials from Rush University Medical Center, where Coulson was treated. The fact that February is National Heart Month makes this exhibition immediate and appropriate. Coulson used her creativity to heal, and those viewing the show are richer for it.

Shar Coulson’s “Night Sight: Illuminating the Mind’s Eye Through Darkness” is on view at International Museum of Surgical Sciences, 1524 North Lake Shore Drive, through March 16.